Who's the best villian actor of all time?

Cafe Society
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I noted a few weeks back that the AFI list of “Best Movie Villians” cited Hannibal Lecter as the #1 son of a bitch in movie history. I thought that was a reasonable choice, although I would have picked Darth Vader.

It occurred to me that Anthony Hopkins sure did do a great job playing the hungry doc, but I can’t think of any other GOOD villians he’s portrayed. He was the bad guy in that awfulk sci fi flick with Emilio Estevez but who cares?

Consider also the case of Vincent D’Onofrio, who was wonderful as The Bug in “Men in Black,” who was, of course, tear-assing around Manhattan in a brand new Edgar suit. But what other villians has he played?

Then I saw a movie with Alan Rickman in it. Rickman has now played THREE great movie villians; Hans Gruber of “Die Hard” was one of the all-time slimy bastards and had great lines to boot (“So, he won’t be joining us for the rest of… his life.”) and the Sherriff of Nottingham was also a really evil prick, and of course Professor Severus Snape, while his antagonist/protagonist position is yet to be determined, is a major league asshole.

But geez, then you have Gary Oldman, who played DRACULA, and he was also kicked Harrison Ford’s ass in “Air Force One” and tried to kill Natalie Portman in “The Professional” and was so jerkish motor oil came out of his head in “The Fifth Element.”

Mad props are also due to John Malkovich, who drew a rare Oscar nomination for being one crazy bastard in “In The Line of Fire.” He was even crazier and more evil as Cyrus “The Virus” Grissom in the otherwise detestable “Con Air,” was a philadering shit in “Dangerous Liasons,” took Matt Damon’s money in “Rounders,” and has been a crazy bad guy in, frankly, too many other movies to count; he even came off as unsympathetic in a movie named after him, in which he starred as himself.

Who do YOU think is moviedom’s finest villian? Someone old school like Boris Karloff, perhaps?

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One of my favorite bad guy performances came from Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith in the Matrix movies. He really stole the show, IMO, especially in the last two films (considering he was perhaps the only redeeming element of them). I’m not sure if he has done any other villain work, though.

Special Mention for Unintentional Comedy goes to Dolph Lundgren for the role of Ivan Drago in Rocky IV. I mean, the dude kills someone in a boxing match and says, “If he dies, he dies.”

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…and don’t forget AR’s turn as the torturer in Closetland. Mmmmm. Alan Rickman for my favorite villain.

Sorry, RickJay, I don’t have a vote for a great villain, but I just had to add Alan Rickman as the villain I’d most like to torture me.

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Rutger Hauer’s my favorite villain. Loved him in The Hitcher and Nighthawks, and Flesh and Blood, where he even managed to be a bit sympathetic. (Was that movie supposed to be a comedy? I’ve never been sure.) How many great villains can also be romantic leads? Not too many.

Was Jack Palance on the AFI list? Gotta give him points for Shane, and for that Biblical movie where he played a wizard who tried to fly.

Willem Defoe in Wild at Heart and Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet – were they on the list?

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I vote for Basil Rathbone, who was equally grand as both hero and villain.

Most people think of Sherlock Holmes when they think of Rathbone, but he was delightfully hissable in The Mark of Zorro, The Adventures of Robin Hood, David Copperfield, Tower of London and many, many other films.

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He murdered the part of Elrond in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy but he should lose points for playing Mitzi Del Bra. :wink:

I lean heavily towards Christopher Lee, his villains are legion and he played Frankenstein Monster, Dracula many times, Grigori Rasputin, King Haggard in the last Unicorn, The best of all Rocheforts in the '73 The Three Musketeers & '74 The Four Musketeers & Count Dooku/Darth Tyranus. Then he topped these off with Lord Summerisle in The Wicker Man (1973) and Sauruman in the Lord of the Rings movies. He even has a Bond Villain on his resume as Francisco Scaramanga The Man with the Golden Gun (1974).

Please note this was only the highlights of his villainy.

Jim

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Fuck me…fuck me…fuck me…fuck me…fuck me…fuck me - and someday I will! But right now I gotta go!

PABST BLUE RIBBON!

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Alan Rickman. His was the quintessential villain in “Die Hard 1.”

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Well, I wouldn’t quite put him at Karloff’s (peace be upon him) level, but Michael Wincott has to be in the top 10.

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For all the embarrassments of his late career, Malcolm McDowell will always be Alex from A Clockwork Orange.

Kevin Spacey as both Verbal (Usual Suspects) and Lex Luthor (Superman Returns).

Morgan Freeman in Streetwise.

As for the ladies: Alice Krige as the Borg Queen (First Contact)

Bette Davis as Mildred in Of Human Bondage.

Rachel McAdams in Mean Girls.

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If you’ll pardon the hijack, I’m still not entirely persuaaded that Snape is a villain or an asshole. Harry thinks so, of course, but Harry’s an immature little git.

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Alan Rickman certainly has some gravitas as a villian, and John Malkovich certainly casts well. Edward G. Robinson certainly rocked as a villian in a number of films, and who can forget Robert Mitchum (Night of the Hunter, Cape Fear, Dead Man) or Robert DeNiro (Raging Bull, The Untouchables, Goodfellas, the other Cape Fear). For my money, though, I have to go with Fred MacMurray (Double Indemnity, The Apartment, The Absent-Minded Professor) as a villian extraordinaire, though I think Jimmy Stewart would have made an excellent villian if he’d ever played the part as his good friend Henry Fonda did in Once Upon A Time In The West.

Stranger

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My dad once told me that Jack Elam was one wicked SOB in a lot of old westerns. And I saw a movie clip that showed JE shooting at a frightened toddler, so I have to believe it!

But it was all ruined for Dad, once he saw Support Your Local Sheriff! After that, he could never take the man seriously again!
Oh, and let us not forget Alan Rickman’s stint as a cold-blooded murderous bigot in Quigley Down Under. Whatever you may think of the movie itself, the chilling way AR describes what he actually wants from Quigley is pretty creepy!

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Well, What Exit? already beat me to Christopher Lee but I have to second him. Seriously, has he ever played a nice guy? He’s just so delightfully evil, in a refined sort of way.

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I propose Peter Lorre. An utterly unforgetable villain. I think Tom Smith said it best in his song…Lyrics here

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I’ll second Krokodil’s nomination of Kevin Spacey, but for Se7en.

His character KILLS (and redeems the rest of the movie). I’m giving myself chills thinking about it.

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Don’t forget his role as villanous corrupt cop Stansfield in the movie Léon.
Can’t believe Nobody has yet mentioned Christopher Walken.

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My first thought was Christopher Walken (see the Rundown for his greatest villian performance). Alan Rickman was a close second.

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While I don’t think he measures up to some that have been mentioned so far, James Caan can do an incredible thug/villain. He was in a film called North Star in the mid-90’s where he was the local boss in a Yukon gold rush town who would bully, beat or murder everyone else out of their claims. In one scene an underling insults him to his face, and his look of pure, incredulous rage was positively terrifying.

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David Warner

How good a villain is David Warner, you ask? He was in a movie with Malcolm McDowell and McDowell played the good guy.